Back to School Lunches: For you and your kids!

I know it’s a little early to start using that dreaded 6 letter “s” word, but School is coming and planning starts now!

Lunches, both at school and work, are some of the hardest things to plan for. It’s hard to find healthy items that can stay fresh in a lunch box. A new option (well, it’s really a revamp of a traditional Japanese dish) is the Bento Box! We’ve seen lunches packed like this before, but the Pinterest recipes for this style are growing all the time. The Bento Box of today is a box with one large and a few small compartments to keep food from mixing. This helps with portion sizes, and makes packing and eating much faster. Especially at school when there’s a short amount of time to eat, having everything in one container minimizes the time it takes to open each container. The main portions to hit are protein, grains, veggies and fruits.

Some Ideas of what to put in each section:

Protein

Sandwich Meats

Chicken or Tuna Salad

Hard Boiled Eggs

Cheese

Chick Peas

Yogurt

Hummus

Nuts/Peanut Butter

Beans

Grains

Quinoa

Pita Bread

Whole Grain Crackers

Muffins

A pasta or grain based salad

A whole grain bread

Veggies

Carrots

Celery

Beans or Snap Peas

Peppers

Cucumbers

Cherry Tomatos

Brocoli

Fruits

Grapes

Apples

Berries

Pineapple

Organic Fruit tapes or strips

Clementines

Photo from Holley Grainger.com

The most important part is to make sure that the brands you are buying have ingredients you can pronounce, and that there is an ice pack in your child’s lunchbox to ensure that things that need to stay cold are fresh.